Japan and France face off on Monday in a women’s basketball showdown in the Olympics. This is the first game for both of these teams in Group B. This is a key team for both teams with the United State’s being in their group.
This Japan team can’t feel too confident heading into this game, especially with no fans being behind them in the stands. This Japan team is very undersized with the average player being only 5’9″. The best player for this team was expected to be former WNBA player Ramu Tokashiki, but she is still recovering from an ACL injury and won’t be playing in the tournament. In this game, and the entire tournament, Japan is going to need to try and make up for their lack of size, something that won’t be easy to do. If Japan doesn’t do a good job of rebounding, this is going to be a long game for them.
On the other side of this matchup is France, who most believe will be the second team to make it out of this group, but they can’t overlook this game. This is a French team that has a loaded backcourt. L.A. Sparks standout Gabby Williams is one of the best players on this squad, and they are going to need him to have a big game. This is a team with a lot of offensive talent and the higher scoring this game is, the better the chance that France will come away with the victory. In this game, France is probably going to try and push the pace, and also really crash the boards trying to take advantage of the size of Japan.
Japan doesn’t have a lot of size, and that is going to really let them down in this game. Look for France to run up the score, Japan is going to have no answer, and France will come away with a win and a cover of the spread.